it's good that he responded .However IMHO he classically responded in "corporate screech"..

But to be honest, thats his job as an evangelist and I still think it's commendable that he responds ..

Secondly, Phillipp how do you classify yourself as a blogger or a journalist ? or is there no distinction at all ??

> how do you classify yourself as a blogger or
> a journalist ? or is there no distinction at all ??

I think "news blogging" is a form of journalism (with the note that not all blogs are news blogs... some may be fictional, personal diaries etc). And then I like to use the word "traditional journalism" when I want to talk specifically about the work of reporters employed at newspapers, TV stations and so on. So IMO it's not "blogging versus journalism" (because the two are not comparable, or mutually exclusive) but "news blogging and traditional journalism" (because these two are comparable, plus people of the two fields can learn a great deal from each other... e.g. you can learn a lot for your blog if you read books on traditional journalism I think).

And then it's important to note that we didn't even start define quality: there are good news blogs and not-so-good ones just like there are good and bad traditional reorters. It's interesting to cross-check which traditional standards are commonly applied in which blogs, and which standards may be ignored. Every news blog may treat this different (and as the medium is newer, the standards applied may also change over time). For instance one key difference between traditional journalism and news blogging may be that a news blog can be more of an ongoing conversation (with comments, dynamic disclosed editings to an article and so on... something not directly available in e.g. static newspapers), which may lead to different standards to be applied in news blogging.

Either way, he has to know you "we" were expecting a little more!

Google press support now followed up with more answers (they say that "several of my colleagues and I worked on them and we all believed they were communicated to you at the time" but I even checked my spam and trash folder for matches with below answers, and found nothing):

<<Q. Why doesn't Google disclose the contract with the libraries regarding the mass digitalization of books?

A. Many of these agreement involve private contracts that are subject to confidentiality provisions, and by law we aren't permitted to disclose the terms.

Q: Ever considered using YouTube as a method to disrupt the current Hollywood-style infrastructures in the USA and other wealthy nations?
  
A: YouTube provides professional filmmakers with a new distribution method to market and promote their content. YouTube does not compete with traditional distribution channels. Instead, it complements traditional models by providing a platform that encourages community participation around content. In addition to that, YouTube helps aspiring filmmakers who often lack access to traditional distribution methods by giving them an easy way to promote their films to mass audiences. Filmmakers are engaging directly with their fans and growing their audiences virally through being discovered on YouTube.

YouTube has thousands of partners around the world and will continue to work with content partners large and small to provide them with platforms to promote and monetize their content, and engage and grow their audiences.
  
Q. Will Google ever make it possible to search for music, like a music score on the net, similar to Google Books – and music with copyright expired would be free to download?

A. Google's mission is to make all the world's information universally accessible and useful, and already users can access a variety of media through Google searches – including video, books, news, images and blogs. We are constantly innovating to continue to deliver on our mission, but we have nothing specific to announce at this time.>>

Regarding the China censorship issue: an April 23, 2006 article in the NYT, “Google’s China Problem,” by Clive Thompson discusses how Google initially set up computers inside China to compose a list of words and topics that were banned by the Chinese censors.

Today, it's not entirely clear to the outside world how the wishes of the Chinese government regarding censorship are communicated to the content providers and ISPs. Censorship appears to be a combination of "user self-censorship, corporate complicity and government legal and propaganda controls—all of which are backed by the comprehensive [technical] filtering system known as China’s "Great Firewall." see: http://www.feer.com/articles1/2007/0712/free/p018.html?Pulling_the_Strings_of_China%E2%80%99s_Internet

An interesting tidbit: The China Digital Times recently translated some "instructions" it found from the Chinese censors, which are surprisingly specific: http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2008/01/internet_censors_latest_working_instructions_1.php.

Finally, Rebecca MacKinnon of Hong Kong University's School of Journalism covers the China net censorship issue extensively on her blog: rconversation.com.

Let's hope that efforts underway among the major Internet companies (Google is a participant, as are Microsoft and Yahoo!) to devise a code of conduct for dealing with censoring regimes succeed, so companies can leverage their collective strength to counter censorship and privacy abuses by governments.

"Ever considered using YouTube as a method to disrupt the current Hollywood-style infrastructures in the USA and other wealthy nations?"

FYI, this is a myth – we've just see how little YouTube mattered in practice, during the current Writers Strike. See my column at:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/jan/03/internet.digitalvideo

Another follow-up answer from Google dropped in:

<<Q. How do you communicate with the Chinese government about which sites to censor? Is there any automatism? Or do all censorship requests go through a human review?
  

A. We do not comment on government policies in China.

However, it is well understood that Google's mission is to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful. With that said, Google's operation in all countries strictly comply with local laws, regulations and policies.

The search results on the .cn website comply with local laws, regulations and policies and, thus, some filtering results.>>